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A TikTokker has revealed how a simple Ancestry DNA test may have solved a notorious 27-year murder mystery known as the Baby Garnet case — and landed her grandmother in jail.
Jenna Rose Gerwatowski, 23, revealed in a clip viewed more than 1.3 million times since Wednesday that she decided to take a DNA test a few years ago merely because it seemed “dope.”
“Little did I know,” she said with a chuckle — cutting to how a year later a detective from the Michigan State Police called her at work, scaring her that she could be in trouble.
“I was like, ‘Excuse me? What the f–k did I do?’ So I start freaking out,” she recalled.
Instead, the cop told her he had reopened a cold case from 1997 “and your DNA is a direct match to the victim of this case,” she recalled being told.
Gerwatowski said she was only shocked when she was told it was about Baby Garnet, the well-known death of a “term or near-term” newborn found in an outhouse at Garnet Lake Campground in Naubinway, Michigan.
Further official DNA testing confirmed Jenna’s mother was directly related to the child — meaning it had to be tied “to my mom’s mother,” Gerwatowski said of Nancy Gerwatoswki, 61, whom she had never met.
“I was mind blown,” she said. “She is literally the f–king person they’ve been looking for for 25 years — and it’s all because of a f–king Ancestry DNA kit,” she alleged in the now-viral video.
Nancy Gerwatoswki was arrested in 2022 and charged with murder, involuntary manslaughter, and concealing the death of an individual, Click on Detroit reported.
Nancy admitted being Baby Garnet’s mother, according to the local outlet.
She is thought to have given birth to the child at home where it died of asphyxiation, before she left the body in the outhouse, according to the local outlet. Prosecutors argue that the baby could have been saved if medical help had been sought.
In October 2023, Nancy was released on a personal recognizance bond and had to comply with GPS monitoring and home confinement. She faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel previously acknowledged the role of genetic advancements in solving long-standing cold cases.
“This is a testament to the persistence of law enforcement and the power of science,” Nessel said in a May press release.
“We are finally able to pursue justice for Baby Garnet, thanks to the tireless work of investigators and the technological progress that has made this possible.”
The young TikTokker, meanwhile, said she never knew her grandmother — but knew all about the case she’s now charged with.
“This was a big deal in the town I grew up in because it was so f—ked up,” she said.